Stepping Out

TheatreWorks’ world premiere of “Being Earnest” – the new musical from Tony Award-nominated composer/lyricist Paul Gordon – opened last week and is scheduled to run through April 28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St.

The play is a lyrical adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest.” The musical resets the romantic comedy of mistaken identities in 1964 London’s swinging Carnaby Street.

In the midst of a London buzzing with mod fashion, new music and evolving ideas of morality, young friends Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff find themselves adopting the pseudonym “Ernest” for various complicated reasons. The two women they court both confess to loving the name as much as the man. The four unexpectedly meet at Worthing’s country home under the disapproving eye of Lady Bracknell, and chaos ensues.

The cast includes Hayden Tee as Jack Worthing, Riley Krull as Cecily Cardew and Maureen McVerry as Lady Bracknell.